Members receive access to a range of exclusive benefits such as events at the UN and across the United States, as well as opportunities to advocate, host Model UN conferences, and connect young professionals to UN experts.

Adopt-A-Minefield® (AAM) was initially created in response to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty (MBT). In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the landmine crisis reached critical levels, with each New Year yielding an additional 20-25,000 new casualties. In reaction to this humanitarian disaster, civil society banded together to create what was then—and still is—called the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). The ICBL pushed governments to address the crisis and to create a treaty that would prohibit the production, use, transfer, and stockpile of these dangerous weapons. The campaign was successful and the Ottawa Convention—or Mine Ban Treaty—was signed on December 3, 1997.

After the treaty entered into force in 1999, Adopt-A-Minefield (AAM) was created by UNA-USA to engage American civil society in mine action. To further harness the energy, creativity, and momentum generated from the mine ban movement, AAM worked with individuals, businesses, organizations, schools, and faith-based groups to raise awareness and funds to help the United Nations and the mine action community clear landmines, assist survivors, and educate impacted and donor communities about the landmine crisis. UNA-USA successfully concluded the AAM campaign in December of 2009. At the conclusion of the campaign, AAM had raised over $25 million for mine action, cleared over 1,000 minefields, and assisted thousands of survivors.

Working in partnership with the UN as well as local, national and international organizations, Adopt-A-Minefield supported mine action projects in:

Abkhazia

Afghanistan

Angola

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Cambodia

Croatia

Colombia

Ethiopia

Iraq

Lao PDF (Laos)

Lebanon

Mozambique

Nepal

Vietnam

Survivor Assistance

AAM’s survivor assistance program was launched in September of 2002. The program supported the work of organizations were providing a number of vital services to landmine survivors in the most mine-impacted countries in the world. AAM Survivor Assistance partners were selected on a competitive basis based on AAM’s Survivor Assistance Criteria. AAM’s survivor assistance program stressed the importance or reaching the largest number of people, with the best quality of services that would enable mine impacted victims to be fully reintegrated into their communities. AAM believed that landmine survivors and all disabled people have a right to the same quality of life that other people have and recognized that many governments in mine-impacted countries did not have the resources to provide needed services.

Clearance

Mine Clearance activities were funded through the United Nations Development Program and in close cooperation with national mine action centers in support of local and international mine clearance organizations. Mine clearance projects include the clearance of specific minefields or support for mine clearance teams over a two-month period. In either case, all projects were considered high or medium priority by a national mine action authority because they made people safer.

Mine Risk Education

In addition to the routine mine risk education conducted as a part of the clearance projects that Adopt-A-Minefield funded, AAM also worked with several local organizations to conduct and implement mine risk education, including dynamic new programs designed by youth for youth.

Educating at risk communities about the dangers of landmines and how to avoid them were essential, and the cornerstone of AAM’s Mine Risk Education project because it saved lives.